While money is the bottom line in our contemporary economy and overrides crucial environmental concerns, plants are often the raw material for generating income (and money, made from paper, is also produced from plants). Fiona Hall’s witty and
elegant work captures this perfectly.
Russell Storer, Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, 2000

Fiona Hall is one of Australia’s most prolific and innovative contemporary artists. Her multilayered, work uses unusual materials to convey meanings and ideas.

Leaf litter investigates the interrelationships between the natural world and the commercial world. The work consists of a number of individual elements made of bank notes from different countries, joined together to form panels. On the bank notes, Fiona Hall draws leaves that represent a native plant from the country of origin. These plants have become endangered as a result of economic pressures to grow commercial crops.

The image of the leaf, as delicate as an x-ray, reveals the bank note behind and the eye of the viewer moves from one to the other.